Got-cha! 14 years!

(*Last  year's GOT-CHA Day.)


Michael's Got-cha Day is November 5th 1997.

The day I arrived in Haiti and saw him for the first time.

He was two days shy of four months old.

He looked like this:

(*hey Beth McHoul - remember this couch!?)

Today he looks like this:

His Got-cha day this year was on Sat. and he (and Zion) had a swim meet.
I was timing at the meet - and didn't get to take any photos except for the warm-ups.

But he had a good day.

After the meet, he chil-laxed at home:
mostly playing video games and checking up on friends with Facebook.

We always offer to take Michael out for his Got-cha Day.
But he is a "home-body" kind of guy.
So he always request the same dinner.
Pasta, sauce and garlic bread.
It makes my job easy.

He wanted to invite two friends from the neighborhood.
Joe and Ben Cook came down to have dinner with us.

After dinner, the boys played video games for a while.

How cute is Zion sitting with the "big boys" trying to get in on the action?





And then Mike took them out for dessert to YogurtLand.
The van won't hold all of us, plus friends* -
so the "girls" stayed home.
(me, Meleah and Mia, the dog)

*It was one of Michael's complaints about adding a family member.
(no room in the van to take a friend - so I hope one day, he understands why I stayed home)


Michael,
You changed my identity from Melda to Mama.
You changed my career from nurse to your personal assistant.
You changed my ride from a 2-door to a sliding door.
You changed my music from Alan Jackson to Raffi.
You changed my TV from ER to Blues Clues.
You changed my reading choices from novels to "GoodNight Moon"
You changed my life.
You changed my heart.
I love being your mother 
and I love you.
Mom


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow is Orphan Sunday and we will be celebrating with friends the adoption and dedication of their son Devin.   What an awesome day for a dedication and celebration.


We are so blessed to be a family of six through adoption and foster care.   How different our lives would be without Michael, Isaac and our foster kids (past and present)  


and more importantly,
how different our lives would be without God adopting us into His family.


Thank you God for Michael.
And thank you God for adopting me.






To learn more about the missionaries that we adopted Michael from:
Click here

If you have any questions about orphan care, foster care, or adoption.
Please email me:  MikenMelda@aol.com

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

To my big,
little boy............

who loves his iPod touch

and his dog

and sometimes his mother..............

and loves playing soccer,

and playing it cool too.

and needs to have a plan.

and because your brother looks up to you in more ways than one,

I wish you a wonderful birthday

and a wonderful year at being 14

(the same as your feet!)

I love you so much.

Thank you for making me a mother.

Michael tries Racquetball

Michael hangs out at the gym while Isaac and Zion are doing aikido.

Sometimes he plays basketball.

Last week, we saw some friends from church there, and the dad invited him to try his hand at racquetball.

Lesson one - how to serve

Honor Roll

Great job Michael!

Middle School is tough, but he is hanging in there!

Jonah had a half-day on the afternoon of the awards assembly.

So he went with me.

We got a big chuckle at Michael as he walked on the stage,

he actually looked up at the guy on his right with his little half smile.

The only other kid in 7th grade taller than Michael.

Maybe he likes soccer!

Speaking of soccer,

the season is over.

Michael is back in the pool with Tsunami Swim Club

and will swim with them through the summer.

Soccer will begin again in August.

swimmer no more

Michael is back on the soccer field.

I was loading some photos from my camera and remembered that Mike had taken photos at the swim meet while I did the video.

He makes a scrapbooking woman proud!

He got some good photos of Michael's one and only swim meet!

Sidekicks soccer / game 3

Saturdays = soccer 

I am thankful to say, the first three games have been sunny.

Sports in Guam are "rain or shine"

You might have seen photos of the MUD BOWL.

(*click here if you missed it)

It was by far, the most miserable soccer game I have ever sat through.

But I love my boys, and I will do my best to be at every event they have, rain or shine.

Even if they act embarrassed, I am convinced they are really glad I am there.

So once again, I have soccer photos of my ROCK STAR.

Always so proud of you Michael!

You give 100% on the field, without a break and without complaint.

Sidekicks soccer

Michael's biggest fans

Yes he did block that shot!

I don't think #10 thought Michael would save it.
He was already out of bounds for the throw in.

The middle school only plays soccer in the fall, but there is a spring league off base as part of the Guam Football Association.  

Michael has been practicing with the Sidekicks Soccer Team for over a month now and they had their first soccer game last weekend.

It was a good, close game.

Michael played goalie for the first half, which shocked us.

He did well.

Finally score:   1-1

First Swim Meet

Today was Michael's first swim meet.

I had WAY more anxiety than he did.

Mr. "even-stephen" ........

His usual answer to anything is, "yeah, it was good"

this is the case if you ask him about the day at school or a week at DisneyWorld

The island of Guam is somewhat limited in Olympic quality swim facilities.

In fact, the pool where Michael and Zion practice is 15 meters,
so it is somewhat difficult to know if they are working up their endurance.

They also don't have starting blocks - so Michael has only had one practice going off blocks.

Michael has also not practiced turns in the water.

Those are the things I had anxiety about.

Now, two months ago - I had no idea about any kind of swimmer speech -  
There are short course meets and long course meets. 

Short course meets run the short side of the pool - 25 meters
Long course meets - the long side of the pool - 50 meters

Today was a long course meet - 50 meters

Michael was entered into the 50free and the 50back

So he only had to swim one length of the pool without a turn - freestyle (which is how most people swim after the move past "doggie paddle")
and then backstroke. 

He did a great job and we were so proud of him. 
Especially since he didn't even want to swim between soccer seasons and I made him do it.  :)

Here are the videos: